Arrest shakes nonprofit’s foundation

Dave Wedge, John ZarembaTuesday, January 15, 2013

Credit: Boston police

Marcus Merritt

comments

City officials say a nonprofit’s standards for hiring hardened criminals to steer kids away from gangs and drugs may be too lax, after a Boston Foundation StreetSafe worker was fired when cops say they busted him with a hooker in his truck, cocaine on the console and a loaded derringer.

“You certainly don’t want someone like that entrusted with kids,” City Council President Stephen J. Murphy said. “We’ve got to look at the process again, and maybe we have to take a look at them every year or two.”

Boston Foundation spokesman Ted McEnroe said StreetSafe applicants undergo “an extensive vetting process,” factoring in the severity of an applicant’s offenses, and how long ago they happened.

“Our overall track record has been very good,” McEnroe said. “We remain confident that hiring people who know the streets of Boston, and even those who made have had some time on the other side of the legal system, has been an effective strategy to address violence in some of Boston’s most high-crime neighborhoods.”

Marcus Merritt, 35, is being held on $35,000 bail on charges of carrying a gun without a license, cocaine possession and seeking sex for a fee. He was arrested Saturday in Dorchester and was fired later that day, McEnroe said. Merritt’s lawyer, Tamari Kovach, said her client was just giving the woman a ride home. Merritt — the third StreetSafe worker canned since 2010 for cop trouble, McEnroe said — was hired three years ago. His record includes a 2002 Suffolk County conviction for possessing drugs with intent to distribute and a series of drug offenses in Florida, the Suffolk district attorney’s office said.